Sand Theatre

Yes, I counted and sorted all the entries into the contest. The name Sand was actually predetermined and the entry with that name with the earliest entry date or post mark was selected as the winner of the Name the Legion Contest.

The ad pictured for the Sand Theatre ran in the local newspaper on Sunday March 4, 1973. That night after the theatre closed a fire of undetermined origin extensively damaged the balcony and booth area. Part of the balcony collapsed into the lobby area and bottoms of the seats under the balcony were burned. It was announced that over $150,000 in damages to the interior occurred. The Sand never reopened even though it was announced it would be rebuilt as soon as possible.

I recall taking the whole day in sorting the thousands of entries from Patrons of the Legion who entered the contest to rename the Theatre. I had entries all over the desk in the advertising room and all over the floor. There were numerous bags full of entries that had been put in big bulk pop corn storage bags. At that time we popped up and kept pop corn in the popping and storage room for the warmer in the concesssion as it was needed. That pop corn sat there sometimes for a week or more before it was all transfered to the concession warmer. Needless to say, the pop corn sales were the best on weekends when one of the concession workers was having to pop fresh pop corn most of the day. Actually, not every entrant actually received their free pass as had been advertised. I always thought this was wrong, but it did not hurt the patronage of the theatre.